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Sunday, 10 March 2013

Taking water for granted

Before I moved to GC I took water for granted, it came out of every tap in the house, and produced expensive bills every month. Every year there would be a water ban through the "summer" months, and then it would rain for the other 11 months of the year! How does one country get it so wrong, when others can manage with the water that surrounds them on their islands.

Once you live in another country you begin to realise how badly wrong the UK has got their water system, and although GC has many quirks, they produce water all year. Tourists are often told to not drink the tap water, which they think is because it is toxic. In fact it is to make them drink bottled water and boost the economy!

Our water has become precious to us, and yes it does come out of the taps, occasionally when it feels like it, and often a funny colour. we do drink bottled water but that is now habit rather than health issues from the tap water. Canarians have an amazing ability to hoard water, and the moment it rains the begin to pump and store.

The furrow is currently flowing through our finca, which is very quaint, a bit like having your own personal stream to play Pooh Sticks in. However, we fail to use it for the purpose that it is intended, which is to pump it out and store it for "later" When we first moved in I used to think this was a fantastic opportunity, but to be honest now we don't remove any of the water.

I have better things to be doing than rushing around to get the pumps working to pump water into a dirty tank, to store and fester until the summer, and then use this to water the trees. For some of the farmers it is their passion to steal/recycle as much water as they can, and we can always tell when our ignorant neighbour is pumping before us, as the water pressure dropped to a trickle.

Do we recycle water and ensure that we waste as little as possible, yes, but pumping water from the furrow I will leave to the locals. They feel it is their magic water supply that has been given to them by the rain gods, and this I would not want to interfere with EVER!